Billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz disclosed that the value of stocks held by his firm Trian Partners fell about 18 percent in the fourth quarter as the company sold stakes in several holdings.

Trian Partners General Partner llc held stakes in stocks with a value of almost $1.66 billion on December 31, 2009, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That was down from more than $2.03 billion at September 30, 2009.

During the fourth quarter, the New York-based hedge fund sold its shares in Chemtura Corp , Kraft Foods Inc , Philip Morris International Inc

, Lorillard Inc , Career Education Corp , General Mills Inc and Willis Group Holdings Plc , according to the filings.

In some cases, Trian replaced shares it sold with call options, according to the filings. An equity call option allows an investor to buy a company's shares at a fixed price within a specified time period.

Trian also cut its stake in Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc by more than 901,000 shares to almost 5.07 million shares, according to the filings. It bought 181,707 and 97,800 shares, respectively, in Boise Inc and Dollar Tree Inc .

Peltz's fund also acquired call options on 1.43 million shares of Safeway Inc and 146,600 shares of Brazil's Banco Santander SA in the fourth quarter, according to the filings.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman; editing by Mohammad Zargham)